A baby rat filmed emerging from inside a restaurant wall. A mouse caught on camera feasting inside a tray of hamburger rolls. Raw chicken and meat not labelled or date coded and incomplete food safety records.
The long list of food safety transgressions at hamburger chain Grill’d outlined in a series of leaked internal food and safety audit reports, internal documents, a council report, and dozens of photos from staff, triggered a social media backlash. In an attempt to dilute the public’s disgust Grill’d announced it would hire a global food auditor to review its food safety and work practices. But in the process of exposing the worker exploitation and uncleanliness scandal it became clear there was another scandal that has been festering away: an overall lack of enforcement by the relevant authorities of food hygiene regulations and fines that are so low they fail to act as a deterrent.
Ensuring a restaurant is compliant with food safety standards, including cleanliness, filling in food diaries and trace reports takes time, which costs money. The laws may be strict but if they aren’t properly monitored and enforced then things fall apart.
Like anything, when there is little oversight, light penalties and a lack of appetite to take action, things go awry. Food safety is no different. Read the complete article here.
